Business with a Bang! Birmingham software firm Isotope11 leverages resources to help start-up businesses.

Business dreams may achieve reality this summer through Incubate!(Bang), a competition created and run by software firm Isotope11, which will give a local start-up an accelerated business development.

“We want to give people who have a great idea, passion and little to no resources the opportunity to do what their dream is,” says Laird Foret, Isotope11’s chief executive officer. “A lot of people have been thinking about things for years. They have great ideas and no way to get started.”

Isotope11, a Homewood software firm, develops tech-based products such as financial services, mobile apps, multi-level marketing and insurance underwritings. By hosting Incubate!(Bang), Isotope11 is using its company’s skills to accelerate a business idea into a functioning start-up.

Incubate!(Bang) is the second competition for Isotope11, who has partnered with investors who will provide the financial means for these startups to become local businesses while Isotope11 offers time, mentorship and office space to the winning company. Though the competition has presented itself annually, the firm hopes to hold it concurrently.

The accelerated process, also called an incubator, speeds up the time that a start-up normally takes to get off the ground. The competition will allow the first version of the business to be running within the first 90 days. The goal is to receive the second round of funding within 180 days of the launch.

For other developments, this process could take well over a year, but Foret says, “We’ve squished it down, compressed it into three- and

six-month intervals.”

In order to achieve the accelerated process, at least one founder must be fully committed to the business, quitting his or her job to focus on developing the start-up.

An increase in local start-ups would also benefit Isotope11, who is investing billable time into the competition’s winning development. As

a company that builds software for start-ups, a growth in the community would increase Isotope11’s client base.

The key element for start-ups applying is that the venture is scalable regionally, nationally and even globally. Web-based technologies allow for scalability and a return for investors. Lifestyle business, such as mom-and-pop or storefront businesses are difficult for reaping capital. A return on an investment can fund more startups and allow for Incubate!(Bang) to be hosted concurrently.

The increase in competition would lend to Birmingham becoming more of a tech-city, says Josh Adams, chief technology officer for Isotope11.

“It’s not outside the realm of possibility considering that nearby cities like Atlanta and Huntsville are full of start-ups,” Adams says.

These web-based businesses would even allow for a move for businesses across the country to reach into Birmingham for resources.

“You’ve heard of outsourcing, but we’re trying to build southsourcing,” Foret says of Birmingham. “The South is a little bit cheaper than up north or out in California, and we’ve got the same talent base.”

Southsourcing could lead to additional startups in the community; more start-ups equates to fiercer competition in the next Incubate!(Bang)

and a chance for Isotope11 to provide guidance to the young businesses.

A tidbit of guidance from both Adams and Foret is for start-ups to work on the financial strategies of their ideas.

Adams says that a business strategy should come toward the beginning of the plan, if not first. The more a business can tell investors

about how it turn around capital, the more likely the business is to win Incubate!(Bang).

Freshfully, the winner of the last competition and part of the current mentorship team, won, in part, because of its sound financial plan.

Though this round of Incubate!(Bang) closed on July 1, Isotope11 hopes to run it again in a year, or even sooner depending on the return of investments.

Subscription successful

Media Kit

Birmingham is more than just Greater Birmingham’s leading lifestyle magazine. We combine print and digital media solutions, engaging events and strategic partnerships to deliver Birmingham’s most influential, sophisticated and affluent consumers to our clients.